White mullein

Another day spent working in the marshalling yards at Whitemoor, recording plant species and taking monitoring photographs. I like going on a Sunday, when the site is fairly quiet, with only the occasional shunting train.

The wildlife was quite bold: there were lots of rabbits (who are doing a great job of keeping the grassland managed), a shy muntjac deer and, rather surprisingly, an apparently fat and healthy hedgehog. I was also delighted when a kingfisher flew towards the small lake, whizzing about a meter over my head.

The morning was hot and sunny, with scarcely a breath of wind, which made it quite hard work trudging around. There wasn't a lot of time for fun photography but I did take time out to photograph a couple of the scarcer plants that grow on the site, to add to my collection of local rarities!

My chosen blip is the stately flowering spike of white mullein Verbascum lychnitis. This species is native to the far south of England, particularly Kent and Sussex, where it grows on disturbed calcareous soils. It's often found in large numbers in recently felled woodland and the population increased markedly after the Great Storm of October 1987.

It has been known from the Whitemoor area for many years, and probably arrived along the railway network, along with other scarce mulleins. Although it's not native to the area, it finds the grassland which has developed on highly calcareous railway clinker to be a very suitable habitat, and this year there seems to have been a major increase in its population. This might be related to the unusual weather, but could also be a result of increased rabbit populations, and the consequent disturbance caused by their digging scrapes and burrows.

Back to Whitemoor again tomorrow morning, then just two days to shop, pack and organise for our Orkney trip. I'm afraid comments may be a bit thin on the ground for the forseeable future!